Written by

Robert Mentzer

Gannett Central Wisconsin Media

If you are Kelly Westlund, your biggest political problem might not be how to run against a well-established, well-funded political opponent or how to spread your message in a sprawling, 20-county congressional district that accounts for more than one-third the size of Wisconsin.

Rather, the biggest political problem for the former Ashland City Council member, a Democrat seeking to oust two-term GOP Rep. Sean Duffy, might be how to get Democratic voters to show up in a mid-term year.

I sat down with Westlund on Saturday in Wausau. She was on her way back up north after speaking to the Democratic Convention in Wisconsin Dells. She said Democrats would be motivated to turn out against Gov. Scott Walker and that many on the left “are now seeing the consequences of apathy in 2010.”

We’ll see. Nationally, the prospects for Democrats are seen as pretty bad in this fall’s races, and in the phrase of the Cook Political Report the GOP has a “built-in midterm advantage” because the electorate tends to be a bit older and whiter, and those groups tend to be more conservative.

But Westlund says she sees more and more young people are getting involved (she is 31) and that on issues, she can speak to the real lived experiences of people in her district in a way Duffy cannot.

“My husband is a carpenter,” she said. “He was building houses when the housing market collapsed. Suddenly, he was out of work. I was still employed, thank heavens, but we still had bills to pay. My husband was able to get unemployment insurance and that’s what helped us to stay afloat.

“I know what it’s like to be there. I know what it means to depend on that earned benefit.”

That’s in contrast, she argues, with Duffy, whose GOP majority in the House did not pass an extension of unemployment insurance earlier this year — a move that, as Westlund points out, “cuts (the long-term unemployed) out of participation in our economy entirely.”

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Westlund, who announced her candidacy early this year, is probably still not well-known to many voters in the 7th Congressional District. A military brat, she moved around a lot growing up, and came to Wisconsin 13 years ago to attend Northland College. She started as an intern at Ashland’s Alliance for Sustainability, a nonprofit that promotes local agriculture and conservation practices, and ended up becoming its executive director. More recently she has worked as a consultant, handling marketing and communications duties for local farmers.

In her challenge to Duffy, she has to be considered an underdog. The Wausau Republican has been a highly visible congressman and, as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, has had no trouble raising cash. In 2012, Duffy beat challenger Pat Kreitlow, a former state senator, 56 percent to 44 percent.

Westlund said a sense of outrage at growing inequality in America is a big part of what is driving her candidacy, and what will connect with many voters of the 7th Congressional District. I think it’s a hard sell. Income inequality is increasing in America, and that is bad for most people’s opportunities. But it’s not like there is anything like a clear prescription for addressing it. Westlund argued for raising the minimum wage, helping reduce student loan debt and strengthening the social safety net — a fairly conventional list of progressive policies, not necessarily anything that can reverse broad, decades-long economic inequality trends.

Still, Westlund sees potential for political movement there. And she will have a chance in coming months to make that pitch to voters.

“People are becoming much more aware of this consolidation of wealth and political power at the very top,” she said, “and they’re frustrated when they see these huge outside groups spending tons of money in races that have direct effects on our daily lives.”